I used the Stampin' Up Build a Bird punch, cutting the birds from kraft card and adding some Distress Ink to shade them. Sentiment is from Joanna Sheen and I've embossed a brick wall for the inside of the nest box. Are they a couple, or a hen feeding her chick? More cards on my blog.

The sentiment is from Stampendous, mounted on Spellbinders tags, which I believe are no longer available, which is such a shame as I think they are just terrific. The larger die-cut was shortened to fit around the smaller one.

My second card involves a lot of triple embossing, using Platinum and Black UTEE. The hearts were cut with Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers and impressed with a deely etched flourish stamp. The sentiment is from SU.

Saturday, 19 April 2014

It could be something cute, pretty, humorous, or merely a technique which satisfies you and makes you pleased with your finished article.

SO... lots of scope,but we'd like you to tell us the reason for your choice!

A few gentle reminders...
Since we moved our Guidelines to the sidebar from the top of the blog, there has been an increasing number of submissions not adhering to the CAS ethos... so please remember ...

Those of you who know me of old may well have expected to see a Penny Black chicken for this challenge. I couldn't resist this young lady. She is one of the row of chooks from the Chicky Work Out stamp. I masked the rest of the girls using sticky tape before inking in order to get her on her own!
The sentiment reads...
God must love calories, because he made so many!
There are a few more examples on my personal blog!

Friends have often said this phrase to me over the last few months, and I wanted to change the sentiment on this to "Add Tequila and Salt" but the printer was playing up lol...The Sentiment and Lemon dies are from the "Feelin Fruity set" from Clearly Whimsy Stamp range and the Linen texture plate from Papertrey Ink.***

First card uses Card-Io tapestry stamps to make a floral wreath, the twigs, flowers and leaves are all stamped several times without re-inking. Some of the flower centres have Stickles added. I haven't added a sentiment to this card, though it's meant to be an Easter wreath, I felt it was looking quite busy enough.Jen

I've kept my card simple for this week and used clear stamps from Clearly Besotted's April release for my card. This set is Pretty Petals Plus and I first stamped in Hero Arts Unicorn ink and then used different colours of Hero Arts shadow inks to add some colour. The Sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.I'm off work this week so finally will have time to catch up on live after a hectic few months.Don't forget about our

If you email us we can send you the details of how to receive your prize.

Please take this badge for your blog!

New Designer Call

At this time we would also like to add an additional designer to join us on our team. If you would be interested in this position, you would need to provide at least one sample for each of our weekly challenges PLUS be prepared to comment on the majority if not all of the submissions!

It was part of the concept which Mandi and Chrissie dreamt up, that the designers would visit and comment on as many submissions as possible, not just on particularly numbered entries.

We also wanted to encourage everyone who participates to comment on fellow entries.

Saturday, 5 April 2014

It's a new month and that means a new Sponsor and a new colour challenge

It also means a new Designer!Many of you commented on how nice it was to have Anne join in whilst Chrissie was on holiday and you said how much you enjoyed her comments, so she is now part of the team.Welcome Anne!Thank you too to Jan for all her hard work commenting on your entries for her Guest Designer spot last week!

This month our sponsor is The Ribbon Girl

The colour challenge this month is

A Touch Of TurquoisePlease remember to keep your submissions CLEAN AND SIMPLERather a lot of layers have been creeping into submissions... so please don't forget to leave that WHITE SPACE

For this week's card I used the Gorgeous Grunge set from Stampin' up and did some generation stamping in both tempting Turquoise and Island Indigo. It's finished off with and embossed sentiment also from Stampin' up. I'm at Sincerely Yours show at Leigh (North West) demonstrating Die Cutting at The Craft Bug today if you are there make sure you pop over and say hello!

For my first card this week I have done a little emboss resist with shadow stamping.I began by stamping the daisies with Versamark and clear embossing. I then sponged the background colour over it, then stamped the image again, slightly offset, using the same background colour. To make the white flowers pop, I simply cleaned the surface of them with a baby wipe.Stamps from Stampin' Up.

This one was just using a scrap of card that I had been experimenting on with some new stamps from Visible Image. I thought it looked too nice to throw in the bin, so I die-cut a portion and added a tiny butterfly.The sentiment is from Tattered Lace.Anne

My first card was cut with my Portrait, the sentiment is Simon Says Stamp

My second one was stamped using the Inkadinkado Stamping Gear, the sentiment stamp is by Different
Colours, I simply added some bling and some twine.

Anne and I will be going to Ally Pally on Sunday 13th April, so if any of you can manage to go too, just let us know, it would be great to meet up!

Friday, 4 April 2014

We had some great cards and we would like to thank all those of you who visited other participants to give a comment. We hope that you will be able to keep this up as it was one of the things which Mandi and I wanted to promote when we first started this blog.